


If You Could Hear Me Now

by ShyAudacity



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Brotp, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Hurt Archie Andrews, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Missing Persons, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Past Character Death, Protective Jughead Jones, Protective Veronica Lodge, Reunions, Revenge, Violence, Vomiting, depends on how you look at it but yeah, this isn't romantic jeronica so dont come here looking for that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-06 11:19:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18387389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity
Summary: Aside from that first week that Archie goes missing, Veronica and Jughead don’t talk for nearly two years. Here's what happens when they finally come back together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This started as one idea and then completely snowballed into another one. Yeah, I dont know.
> 
> Unbeta'd and title from Elegy 2:3 by Sam Rush.

There’s a soft thump and the screeching of tires. He’s been dumped from a car that’s speeding away, as if it had never been there to begin with. The body has been left on the curb- nearly unconscious and shivering from not enough layers, covered in marks and wounds from the aftermath of a fight, a one-sided one at that, it seems.

It’s impossible to grasp the full extent of the damage in his current state- the brain fog is worse than it’s ever been before. He’d only been partly aware while he was in the backseat of the car, mostly because of whatever they’d given to him; it’d been ripped out of his arm at the last second before they deserted him only God knows where.

He hasn’t been drugged in a while, not that he can remember anyway. They must have wanted him to be incoherent when they dumped him, must have been hoping that he’d forget who did this to him, but he won’t forget. He can’t.

The early morning sunrise shines brightly in his face, the concrete glitters in the corner of his eyes. In his haste, he finds his way to standing on his own, but barely makes it more than two feet in front of him before finding the ground again. He crawls as much as he can muster, picking his head up just enough to find a bush in front of him- he must be in a park. This will work as a hiding place for now, or resting, anyway.

The dewy grass soaks through his pant legs as he crawls behind the shrub. They gave him his old clothes back; jeans, white t-shirt, and his RHS hoodie- it’s a miracle that they still fit now, after all this time. His arms give way after trying to hold himself up for longer than they’re used to; roots from the tree behind him dig into his back as he rolls over.

His lucidness is fading by the second. Clouds are forming as he stares up at the sky, billowing and parting just to make way for the blue above. As he looks up at the sky, seconds away from losing consciousness again, the only thing running through his mind is:

_I hope that my friends come for me, that they find me-_

_I hope that someone knows that I’m here._

 

 

 

Archie Andrews is gone. He just- disappeared, in the middle of May, two weeks from graduating college. Just vanished out of thin air, like it was nothing. Everyone in town had looked for him, but there was no sign of him anywhere in Riverdale. Archie was just gone, leaving everyone else to wonder where the hell he’d run off to- or to wonder who had taken him.

Everyone else- Kevin, Cheryl, Josie, hell even Betty- moved out of town eventually; Riverdale just didn’t feel the same without it’s Golden Boy around. Reggie stills has an apartment in town even though he spends most of his time in New York now and the Serpents hardly qualify as a gang anymore. It’s been years since Fred Andrews passed, and Mary hasn’t stepped foot in Riverdale since her son disappeared.

Nearly everyone is gone- but not Jughead and Veronica. Both of them stayed. If Archie comes back, they wanna be ready for it.

 

 

 

Aside from that first week that Archie goes missing, Veronica and Jughead don’t talk for nearly two years. No reason to, now. Their glue is gone; don’t have much reason for hanging out or even speaking when there’s no one to bring them together.

Veronica still lives in The Pembrooke, has since her parents split and then left town. Jughead became General Manager of the Five Seasons while he waited for his book to get picked up. Both of them have views that overlook the city; they often find themselves looking out of their windows at night, wondering if Archie could still be here, somehow.

With it being such a small town, it really is a miracle that they don’t run into sooner.

Of course, they both end up in the same grocery store. Of course, they’re in the same aisle. Of course, neither one of them is watching where they’re going. Jughead is looking down at his phone- still waiting on Random House to get back to him- and Veronica is looking up at the signs trying to find the peaches.

There’s a clash of metals when their carts collide; the apples and oranges that Veronica had had in the front her cart, admittedly the place for children to sit, all topple to the floor. Both of them take a step back out of surprise, then crouch to pick up the fallen fruit.

“Sorry, I wasn’t- oh.” 

Veronica looks up at the sound of the voice; the deer in headlights face she’s making is given right back to her. Jughead is in a button down and black slacks, she hasn’t seen him dressed this nicely since Fred Andrews' funeral all those years ago. In all honesty, she forgot that Jughead even still lived in town. Seeing him now is like having a cold bucket of water dumped on her head, one that she wishes she’d seen coming. 

She stands on shaky legs while Jughead makes a work of placing all of her oranges back in the bag; she can’t take her eyes off of him.

He stands finally, wiping his hands on his pants and meeting her eye.

“Veronica, I-.”

She doesn’t stick around to hear another word of what he might have to say; she doesn’t have the capacity to right now, she’s not prepared. Veronica turns on her heel, picking up speed as she walks out of the aisle and out of the store entirely. She doesn’t stop even for a second; if she did, she knows that she’d march right back in there and scream at Jughead until she’s hoarse.

_Why didn’t you ever call me? Why didn’t we keep up with each other after Archie left? How could we be complete strangers now? Do you even miss him? Do care that he’s gone? Have been counting the days like I have just waiting for him to come back? Do you think he’s even still alive?_

Veronica’s hands shake as she makes it out to her car- the one day that she decides not to use her driver- she can barely get her keys out to unlock it. Her heart feels like it’s going to beat out of her chest as she peels out of the parking lot; in the rearview mirror, she can see Jughead standing outside of the store, right at the edge of the parking lot, looking discouraged.

She hadn’t even realized he followed her out.

 

 

 

In all honesty, she should have expected Jughead to come knocking on her door at some point, but not so soon- not that same afternoon. He’s still in his dress pants, but at least he’s got beanie on now, looks a little bit more like himself. She still finds herself staring.

Veronica swallows thickly before she says, “How’d you know where I live?”

Jughead almost scoffs, “It’s a small town, you think I don’t still know where you’ve lived since we were fifteen? …Also, it was mostly a long shot.”

The last part comes out more hushed than the rest and Jughead averts his eyes; Veronica finds herself doing the same. The silence stretches between them so long that Veronica can hear a microwave going off _across the hall_ -

“Did you have a reason for showing up here or-,”

“No, I did, I do, just, uh-.” Jughead says in a rush, gesticulating with his hands. “Do you wanna get dinner? Maybe, catch up, or something?”

Veronica deadpans, “I’m seeing someone.”

“I didn’t mean like a date, Jesus- I just meant dinner. A couple of old friends, getting… reacquainted or whatever, I don’t know. Are you in or not?”

Veronica looks at him carefully, trying to gauge whether or not she wants to do this. Despite everything inside of her saying _no, don’t do this, don’t get sucked back in you’re just asking to get hurt again,_ she still finds herself saying: “Fine, but we’re not going to Pop’s.”

 

 

 

The closest thing to a five-star restaurant is a twenty-minute drive out of town and neither one of them particularly feel like making that drive, so they settle on the next best thing. Gloria’s is a chicken and waffles dive smack dab in the middle of town and, admittedly, Veronica’s go to food when she’s feeling sad. She ate there nearly every day for the first two months after Archie disappeared. Still does now when she finds herself missing him.

Veronica gets her usual, fried chicken, dark meat only and extra syrup on the side. Jughead gets the baked chicken with lemon pepper and a side of mash potatoes- a rookie mistake. The sweet potatoes here put even Pop’s to shame.

It’s appropriately empty for a Thursday night, but Jughead and Veronica still find themselves sitting in near silence for the first twenty minutes, trying to come up with something to say. It goes unsaid, but this would be much easier if Archie was here.    

“So uh…” Jughead starts, “How’s work?”

“How’s work? Really?”

“I’m trying to be civil here, alright? Humor me.”

Veronica rolls her eyes but tries anyway. “Fine, what do you wanna know?”

“I don’t know- I heard that you sold the diner back to Pop Tate a while ago, so what are you doing now? More business stuff?”

“No. I used the money from Pop Tate to finish school. I’m a defense lawyer.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” he says, smiling even, “What’s your defense? Or, I guess- who are you arguing for?”

“Mostly younger kids, making sure that they aren’t wrongly accused or getting them out of bad homes. How about you? Still trying to write that book?”

“Trying to sell it now. Just hoping that I get my big break one of these days.”

Veronica hums, “Aren’t we all? ...How’s Betty?”

“I don’t know," Jughead bites, "We haven’t talked much since we broke up last year. Last I heard, she was seeing someone she met through work.”

 _Wow. I’m really winning the bad friend of the year award; I didn’t even know Betty and Jughead had broken up._ Veronica mutters, “Sorry I asked.”

“It’s fine, I’m over it …how are your parents?”

She almost laughs, “Seriously?”

“It was just a question-.” Jughead tries.

“Since when do you care about-.”

“I’m trying to be nice, here- will you just let me have that?”

“Of course, because at least you’re _trying_ , right?” Veronica crosses her arms; her mocking tone is growing shorter by the second.

“Oh, c’mon. It’s not like _you_ called.”

“And what would I have said, Jughead, huh? Sorry we haven’t talked in two years since Archie fell off the face of the earth-.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Talk about Archie like he just- _decided_ to leave. He would have talked to us first. You know that.”

Veronica relaxes into her seat, avoiding his gaze. “Yeah, I do… I’m sorry.”

Jughead shrugs, “It’s not on you.”

She bites her lip, not caring for once that her deep red lipstick is going to get all over her teeth. Veronica shakes her head after a minute, wanting to laugh at the state of the two of them.

“This is ridiculous,” she says, “We haven’t seen each other in literal years and we’re already fighting with each other. How did we manage to be friends before?”

“We had Archie before,” Jughead replies, glumly, “He could make anyone get along just by being there, didn’t even have to say anything he would just... show up, and that was it. Instant connection. It was practically infectious; I envied him for it for years.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.”

The two sit in silence for a long moment; neither one of them has really touched their food, a shame in itself. Veronica stirs her syrup around with her fork, trying to think of some way that she can remedy all of this. There’s only one thing that comes to mind, but at this rate that’s not likely to happen.

She looks up at Jughead, relearning all of his features. The bags under his eyes are still there, same as high school, but there’s ache behind his green irises that Veronica is all too familiar with these days, the struggle of always missing someone. She’s realizing now that this hurt they’re sharing over Archie being gone is exactly the same; maybe all of this would have been easier to deal with if she’d done a better job at keeping Jughead in her corner.

“Okay,” she says after a while, “Well we can’t keep acting like we don’t the other one of us exists, so what do you propose?”

“Seriously? You wanna do this train-wreck again?”   

“Humor me.” She echoes from before and Jughead sighs.

“How about this,” he says, “We get dinner, once a week and get reacquainted, relearn how to be friends. But we can’t argue, that’s not going to help at all.”

“I agree, no arguing- and no snide comments either. This won’t work if we aren’t at least trying to be decent to each other.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jughead agrees.

“Good, then we’re settled,” Veronica says standing up; she throws two twenty-dollar bills into the middle of the table. She’s pulling her purse over her shoulder when Jughead stops her.

“Hey, before you go- let me give you my number.”

“Is it still the same?”

“…yeah?”

“Then don’t worry,” she says, “I’ve got it.”

It dawned on her after running into him in the grocery store that she still had his number saved from all those years ago. She easily could have called him- should have, really.

“I’ll figure out what day works best for me then get back to you, sound good?” She asks.

Jughead nods, his small smile returning, “Works for me… see you later, Veronica.”

For once, Veronica isn't worried about being surrounded by her past again. In fact, she's almost excited about it. Maybe something good will finally come out of all of this. 

 

 

 

Tuesday nights at Gloria’s become their new normal. Veronica gets the same thing everything single time- why change it up when you already know what you like- whereas Jughead insists on getting something different every week. He wants to try everything on the menu at least once.

Conversation comes easier to them the more often that they see each other; by week six it’s like they were never apart to begin with. Jughead talks about his book and his adventures in being a hotel manager while Veronica tells him what it’s like being a lawyer, tells him about the kids she’s working with. She tells him one night how she got a pair of siblings out of their abusive mother’s house and back with their dad for good, and Jughead looks astonished.

“Damn, Veronica,” he says, “Where were you when I was in foster care? I could have used lawyer skills like that in high school.”

She doesn’t respond, just takes the compliment for what it is.

A couple of weeks later in early March and after a particularly long day at the firm, one where nothing seemed to go her way, Veronica finds herself texting Jughead.

**_Veronica_ ** _: come over_

**_Veronica_ ** _: I have whiskey_

Jughead’s response comes five minutes later.

**_Jughead_ ** _: But it’s not Tuesday._

**_Veronica_ ** _: I know. But I’ve had a shit day and I don’t feel like being alone so are you coming over or what?_

He spends so long typing out a response that Veronica almost worries that he’s giving up on her.

**_Jughead_ ** _: I’ll be there in ten._

An hour later they’re on her couch, sitting at opposite ends with their feet in the middle, still passing the bottle back and forth. Veronica’s got her fingers wrapped securely around the neck of the bottle when she finally says, “It was Archie’s birthday a few days ago.”

“I know,” Jughead says, “I called Mrs. Andrews, just to check in, see how she was doing.”

“You didn’t call me.”

Jughead shrugs, “I wasn’t sure that this agreement of ours extended to things like birthdays. I didn’t know if you’d want to talk about it, or him for that matter.”

He was trying to be nice; she can’t get mad at him for that, not really, anyway. “Fair,” Veronica mutters.

She takes another long swig before she finally works up the courage to ask, “Do you miss him?”

“I try not to…” Jughead says honestly, “being that sad all the time is really hard.”

For once, Veronica doesn’t even try to disagree with him. She passes the bottle back, glad that she’s got someone to share her frustrations with for once.

 

 

 

Veronica wasn’t lying when she told Jughead that she was seeing someone. Herself and Reggie have been off and on for a little over a year now, usually only on the few weekends that he’s in town. It’s nice to have someone to come home to, even if only sometimes.   

She mentions this to Jughead at their Tuesday night dinner; they’ve been doing this for nearly six months now. Sometimes Veronica forgets why they ever started doing it in the first place; Archie’s been gone for three years at this point, and Veronica finds herself thinking of him less and less.

“Reggie’s going to be in town this weekend.”

“Okay?” Jughead says around a mouthful of chicken, “What does that have to do with me?”

“He wants us all meet up while he’s here.”

“But Reggie and I don’t even like each other.”

“ _We_ didn’t like each other,” Veronica reminds him pointedly, “Now look at us. It’s just a few hours, Jughead, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Jughead twirls his fork around in his fingers, contemplating. “Alright, I guess that could work. When is this happening?”

“Saturday morning, at Pop’s.”

“ _Morning_?”

“It’s breakfast, you goof. I get that you’re a night owl or whatever but it won’t kill you to wake up before ten AM just this once. Who knows, you might even get something good out of it.”

 

 

 

Surprisingly, breakfast goes much smoother than Veronica had originally imagined it going. Reggie and Jughead don’t argue or try to belittle each other, all of them manage to have a decent, adult conversation. Veronica even finds herself laughing more than once, it’s familiar in a pleasing way.

After their plates have all been cleared, Reggie excuses himself to go to wash up, and Jughead takes a minute to finally drink everything in.

“Huh,” he marvels, looking around, “This place really hasn’t changed a bit.”

Veronica chuckles lightly, “Oh don’t be vague, aren’t you here, like every day?”  

Jughead shakes his head, “I haven’t been here in nearly two years.”

“What? Why not?”

“Well, first it was because of Archie. For a while I couldn’t do anything without thinking of him, it was like he was- everywhere, but I just couldn’t reach him, you know? I was reluctant to do anything, really. It took some time, but I finally psyched myself up to coming here alone- as if I hadn’t been doing that for years before he ever left.”

“Okay? So what changed?”

“It was about four months after Archie left. I walked in here- just looking for coffee or a burger or a place to write, I don’t know- and the first thing I saw was you and Reggie, sitting in a booth, laughing about something.”

Veronica feels her blood run cold.

“You guys were probably on a date or just having lunch or something, but I was looking at you two and I just got mad. It felt like the rest of the world had moved on or just forgotten Archie, but I couldn’t. He was the only thing that I could think about. I didn’t know what to do, so I just left.”

“Why didn’t you come over and say something?” she asks; her voice is shakier than she’d like to admit.

“Because you were laughing, remember? You were happy. I didn’t wanna come over there and risk taking that joy away from you; lord knows that we didn’t get a whole lot of it during that first year.”

“Yeah,” she says, quietly, “You got me there… but why put it off for so long after that? Why not come back sooner?”

“A think a part of me was worried that I’d run into you again- or better yet, I guess I didn’t really have a good enough reason.”

“But you’re here now.”

Jughead smiles a bit. “Yeah,” he says, “Guess I found my reason.”

Before Veronica can say anything else, Reggie comes back and states. “Alright, let’s go for a walk or something. I ate way too much and it’s way too nice of a day outside to let it go to waste. We can circle back later for the car.”

Jughead and Veronica don’t even give a second thought, just pay the bill and leave. There’s a bit of a chill outside, a late September. The sun is still trying to peak over the edge of the trees, but the light shining down gives the three of them all the warmth that they need. Veronica walks between the two of them as they head towards the park, her arm linked through Reggie’s.

“This is really nice,” Veronica states, “We’ll have to-.”

“Did you guys hear that?” Jughead interrupts.

They all stop, listening very carefully. A low, painful groan comes from somewhere in front of them- behind the bush, just a few feet ahead. Jughead steps forward, peering over the edge of it, trying to see what’s making the noise.

“Jughead,” Veronica says warily, feeling her heartbeat spike. She doesn’t like the way that her palms have begun to sweat.

“Oh my god,” he gasps, finally able to see around the shrub. “It’s _Archie_.”  

 

 

 

For a minute, she’s sure she heard him wrong. It can’t be Archie that Jughead is seeing, he’s been gone for _years_. There’s no way.

Then, as she comes around the edge of the bush, the bright red hair that she's dreamed of nearly every night for three years catches her eye, and suddenly every single fantasy that she's ever had about this moment is being put to shame.

It's real. What Jughead said is true. Archie's _back_. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He hasn’t told her this, but something about all of this is starting to feel a little _too_ familiar to Jughead; he just can’t put his finger on where all of these old feelings are coming from. Discouraged, he mutters, “…what if needing me gets him killed?”
> 
> “What if it doesn’t? What if it keeps him safe? Keeps him with _us_. For good, this time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to ao3/tumblr user andsmile for leaving such a nice comment on the last chapter. <3

“Oh my god,” Veronica says, echoing Jughead's comment.

They’re all so stunned by the sight of him that for a moment they don’t even know what to do; it feels like all of their weirdest dreams come true.

When he groans again, all three of them drop to their knees around Archie, the heaviness of the situation is finally kicking in.  

To say that he's in bad shape would be an understatement. His cheeks are gaunt and his nose is bleeding mildly- never mind the way that he's muttering to himself, incomprehensible. His hazy, brown eyes are only open to slits. Archie is curled up on his side, his arms wrapped around his stomach and shivering like it's all he can manage. The hoodie and jeans that he's in obviously are not doing him any favors warmth wise- he must have been out here a while. 

As soon as Jughead tries to touch him, Archie flinches, curling into himself even more; everyone else finds themselves doing the same.

“Jesus Christ,” Reggie says, breaking the silence, “He's high out of his mind.”

Jughead looks down at Archie again and sure enough, he's right, from what he can see Archie's pupils are blown wide.

“Where the hell did he even come from?” Reggie asks, looking around.

“I-I don’t know but we need to do something,” Veronica says, “Reggie, run back to Pop’s and get the car, we need to get him out of here, _now_.”

Reggie scrambles to his feet, running back towards the restaurant; both Veronica and Jughead stay by Archie’s side, trying to think of a way to help him in his current state.

Archie whines again, and without giving it a second thought, Jughead rips off his jacket, maneuvering it around Archie’s shoulders. Besides his nose, he’s not bleeding anywhere that they can see, but there’s no doubt that he’s still been through the wringer. He’s relieved when Archie doesn’t flinch away from him again; Veronica says something that he doesn’t quite catch.

“What?”

“He’s saying something, what is he saying?”

Jughead leans closer, trying to make out the words.

“C-come for me,” Archie slurs, delirious. “M’here… come f’nd me.”

“We’re here, Arch,” Jughead tries, “We’re here, we found you… I don’t understand, how did he get out here like this?”

“We can figure that out later,” Veronica tells him, “Right now we just need to get him back to The Pembrooke in one piece.”

“Wh- The Pembrooke, why not a hospital? He needs helps, Veronica, he’s been _drugged_ -.”

“And what? You think that he did this to himself?” She shrieks; Jughead prays to whoever is listening that no one sees them out here like this. “Look, it’s- we can figure everything else out later, but The Pembrooke is the most protected place in the city, it’s the safest place for Archie to be right now. We can take care of him there.”

Before he can refute, Jughead realizes that Archie’s breathing is coming out in panicked spurts now, finally takes notice of the way that his eyes keep fluttering. Not knowing what else to do, he pulls Archie into his grip, talking to him, trying to get his attention and calm him down. The last thing that they need right now is for Archie to black out on them. 

“Hey, hey Archie, listen to me,” Jughead says frantically; he cradles Archie's neck as he still struggles to breathe. “You're gonna be fine, we've got you now.”

Archie doesn't look at him- or give any sign that he's even aware of what's going on right now- and Jughead feels his resolve begin to break down, his own panic rising within him. He can't lose his best friend, not like this- not after they just got him back.

“C’mon, _please_ stay awake,” Jughead begs, his voice breaking; he hasn’t been this scared in years. “Keep breathing, bud, please.”

Archie makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat, as if his breath was finally coming back to him. His face leans into Jugheads arm, still holding him up; the foggy, faraway look in his eye clears for the smallest of seconds.

“J-Jug?”

“Yeah, hey, pal. It's me. It's Jughead, I'm here.” He's so relieved that he feels like he could cry, might start to just a bit; he hears Veronica do the same thing from next to him. Her hands are covering her mouth when Jughead looks up at her, tears spilling out of the corners of her eyes. Archie lets out a full body twitch and his eyes begin to flutter again, which only makes Jughead hold on tighter.

“It’s alright, Arch, it’s okay… you’re gonna be okay.” Right now, that feels like the biggest lie that he’s ever told, feels worse than everything else that’s gone wrong in the last three years.  

Not even a second later, Reggie is finally back with the car. Veronica climbs into the backseat first, then Jughead and Reggie pull Archie up off the ground finally, all but carrying him to the car. Once’s he’s in the back with her, Veronica presses herself as close to Archie as she can; Jughead doesn’t blame her. He wishes he could crawl back there, too, but there’s barely enough space with the two of them there to begin with. 

As Reggie speeds off towards the Pembrooke, Jughead watches in the rearview mirror as Archie’s hands grasp at the seats, trying and failing to pull the leather between his fingers. Noticing his discomfort and continued state of unease, Veronica pulls the hand closest of Archie’s to her into her own, nestles the other one into his hair, right at the base of his neck.  

Archie’s head lolls towards her; he makes a sound resembling _Ronnie_ , and Veronica lets out her own whine for once.

“Hi there, pretty boy,” she says, quiet and watery, “You still know how to make quite the entrance, don’t you?”

Archie doesn’t respond, no surprise, but he must be cognizant enough to understand what she said because he curls forward until he can rest his head on her shoulder.

Jughead really, _really_ hopes that all of this isn’t just a dream somehow.

 

 

 

Actually getting Archie _inside_ the building seems to be more of a struggle than they originally thought it would be. Despite being the one who insisted on taking him to the Pembrooke, Veronica is also quite adamant on the notion of _if he pukes then we’re calling him an ambulance and that’s final._

Archie blacks out finally somewhere between the park and Veronica’s apartment which leaves Reggie and Jughead to hoist his arms over their shoulders and carry him inside. Jughead hopes that neither Veronica or Reggie notices how he’s about two seconds away from having a full out panic attack.

Thankfully, Archie has stopped shaking by the time they get him inside, but there’s still a pale look to his face that Jughead doesn’t like one bit. He watches as Veronica and Reggie take him into the bathroom adjoining Veronica’s bedroom, but he can’t bring himself to follow them in there. Something about it feels too personal, like’s he’s intruding on a space that he doesn’t belong in. He can have his time with Archie later.

Jughead spends the next twenty minutes pacing in anxious circles in front of Veronica’s couch before he actually convinces himself to _sit down_. Once he does, he can’t stop looking at the door leading to her bedroom, thinking about everything that it holds.

Archie’s on the other side of that door. His best friend of more than twenty years is finally in the same space as him for the first time in fucking _three years_ , and Jughead can’t even make himself go in. To say that he feels pathetic right now would be an understatement. 

Lord only knows how much time has passed when Reggie comes out of the bedroom, leaving the door open just crack; Jughead doesn’t meet his eye when Reggie stops a few feet short of him, just keeps rubbing at his bottom lip with his knuckles.

“My train back to New York leaves in a few hours,” Reggie says, “So I gotta head out, but- let me know how things go with him, alright?”

Jughead just nods and tries not to have a full body, flinch away reaction when Reggie squeezes his shoulder on his way out the door. 

After a few minutes, Jughead decides that he’s officially being ridiculous. He breathes deeply a few times before standing up, slowly sauntering over towards Veronica’s bedroom. He stops outside the door when he hears Veronica talking in a soft voice.

“You’re cute when you’re desperately struggling to survive,” she says, “Even if it does look like you’ve been caught up in an underground fight club.”

Jughead smiles to himself right before he pushes open the door, and just like that the smile on his face leaves just as quickly as it came.

He sees now what Veronica meant by caught in a fight club; Archie’s in just his t-shirt and jeans now, on top of the covers and draped across Veronica’s stretched-out legs. His shirt has ridden up near his lower back, exposing an ugly, bright purple bruise resting over his hip. There’s another one on the back of his left arm, faded shades of yellow and brown but still in the unmistakable shape of someone’s hand.

Jughead goes from stunned to pissed off in a record two seconds flat.

Veronica looks up at him finally, her hand stilling where her nails are scratching through Archie’s hair; she shares his same upset expression.

“He’s not still high, is he?”

Veronica shrugs, “Hard to tell. He woke up for a few minutes, but didn’t say much while we were cleaning him up; he seemed to be a bit more lucid, though. It’s hard to gauge where he’s at when we don’t know what was given to him. I don’t know, none of this makes any sense.”

“I’ll agree with you on that one… is he asleep?”

“I think so… you can come in, Jughead, I’m not territorial, I promise.”

Regardless, Jughead moves carefully into the room, taking off his shoes at the door. He sits down on the opposite side of the bed so that’s Archie faced away from him; the hollowed out look of his cheeks is still freaking him out. Jughead places a gentle hand on Archie’s shoulder, squeezing gently, just to make sure that he’s still here.

“I can’t believe that someone could have done this to him,” Veronica whispers, still in disbelief. “I can’t believe that he’s actually _here_.” 

“I know; I keep thinking about pinching myself to see if it’s real, but I wouldn’t want this to end… Veronica?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think that we’re bad for him?” he asks quietly; Jughead doesn’t have to look to know that she’s looking at him like he’s grown a second head.

“ _Of course not_. Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs, “I was just thinking about before- high school, I mean- it always seemed like we were teetering towards the edge of something chaotic. There was always gangs or murderous fathers running in circles around us. It was just a matter of time before one of us fell; Archie had a tendency to caught up in the backdraft. This isn’t the first time that he nearly met an early grave. I’d hate to think that we’re dragging him back into all of that somehow.”

“It’s a possibility, sure,” Veronica replies, “But our lives are all so different compared to back then, settled down, even. He’s been gone for so long; we hardly know him now. This version of him, anyway.”

Archie makes a noise of discomfort between them, and both of them shush or console him in some way. Jughead is realizing now just _how_ protective he is over the man between the two of them, has a pressing feeling that Veronica is realizing it, too.

“I never told you this,” he mutters, “But I was jealous of you- when you first moved to Riverdale.”

Veronica raises an eyebrow at him but lets him continue.

“I know it sounds odd, seeing as Archie and I were still fighting from the summer and everything, but I was mad. It was like- overnight, you just showed up and took all of his attention away without even having to try. I wasn’t used to it, not being his go-to person anymore. I guess I was bothered that he needed you more than me.”

“But there’s you, too,” Veronica tells him, insistent, “He needs _you_ , Jughead. Always has. No one else would've been able to calm him down like you did earlier.”

He hasn’t told her this, but something about all of this is starting to feel a little _too_ familiar to Jughead; he just can’t put his finger on where all of these old feelings are coming from. Discouraged, he mutters, “…what if needing me gets him killed?”

“What if it doesn’t? What if it keeps him safe? Keeps him with _us_. For good, this time.”

Jughead looks away from her pressing gaze, feeling like he could break beneath the weight of it.

Carefully, Veronica picks up Archie’s head with gentle hands, trading out her lap for an actual pillow before sliding off of the bed. “I’m gonna go get some food, in case he’s hungry later- do you mind? Staying with him for a little bit?”

Jughead shakes his head, “Not at all.” No more does he finish speaking than does Archie roll over in his sleep, nestling against Jughead’s side. He picks up his arm, laying it across Archie’s shoulders and holding him closer.

“Jughead?” Veronica says, paused in the doorway; there’s a hard set, unflinching look on her face that Jughead hasn’t seen her wear in years.

“Yeah?”

“What are we gonna do… about the people who did this to him?”

A pit forms in the base of his stomach, a burst of anger filling him. He understands now what she’s asking of him, finally understands what that look on her face is all about. Veronica’s wondering just how exactly he’s going to _take care_ of this situation, wants to know what he’s going to do to the people who made Archie this way, who hurt him.

_Kill them_ , Jughead thinks, _kill them all._  


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A low groan and a sudden gasp from the other room cuts her off; both Veronica and Jughead go still as statues and wide-eyed.
> 
> “Veronica?” A rough voice calls.
> 
> Neither one of them can get out of the kitchen fast enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a fairly detailed panic attack near the end of this chapter, just a heads up. Oh and I made Tom Keller Sheriff again cause that's just how things should be.

Despite having turned his back on the Serpents years ago, Jughead still finds himself thinking of them right now, with a still sleeping Archie Andrews right next to him.

The Serpents officially disbanded more than three years ago… right before Archie fell off the map, if Jughead remembers correctly.

He hadn’t kept up with any of them- he wanted to get out for a reason, and stay out this time around. He sees them around town from time to time, or when he goes to visit with his dad- and every time without fail, Jughead feels his heart leap into his chest out of worry. The last time that he’d seen any of them was weeks ago; ran into Fangs at the gas station, but Fangs had run away so quick that Jughead didn’t have a chance to panic about it. 

He always knew that the Serpents weren’t against getting violent with someone- Jughead had had his own hand in it more than once- but surely they wouldn’t do something like this. This is Jughead’s best friend for crying out loud; the Serpents wouldn’t do something to hurt Archie… right?

 

 

 

The only reason that Jughead ends up leaving Archie alone for more than five minutes is because Veronica forgets her house key. They’re in her small kitchen, unloading the multiple bags of food onto her little round table; she’s pulling out fruits that Jughead has never even heard of before.

“Geez, Veronica,” Jughead remarks, “What’d you do, raid the entire grocery store?”

She sends him a playful glare. “Mock all you want, but I was being methodical. You saw how bony he is now- I wanted to get him options for when he’s hungry, I wasn’t sure what he would want. Lord only knows what kind of appetite he’ll have now- if it’s anything like high school then-.” 

A low groan and a sudden gasp from the other room cuts her off; both Veronica and Jughead go still as statues and wide-eyed.

“Veronica?” A rough voice calls.

Neither one of them can get out of the kitchen fast enough. Veronica gets into the bedroom first, hovering at the edge of the bed while Jughead stays in the doorway, not wanting to crowd Archie too much.

Archie’s sitting up in bed now, looking as startled and confused as ever. The hazy look in his eye is gone, thank god, but his fingers still grapple at the covers beneath him, unsure of the whole situation. There’s a hunch to his shoulders that didn’t use to be there before; he’s breathing heavier than one usually would.

“Hi, Archie,” Veronica says softly, “How do you feel?”

He ignores her question and instead whispers, “Is this… is this real?”

“It is,” Veronica assures him, kneeling in front of him on the bed. “This is real.”

Archie glances over her shoulder, still wary. “Jughead?”

He nods, “It’s real, Archie. You’re here, I promise.”

Archie breathes a sigh of relief, his lips trembling. “Oh, _thank god_.”

Veronica can’t hold herself back anymore when Archie reaches his hands towards her. She lets out her own whine as she leans forward, throwing her arms around Archie’s neck. Archie welcomes the touch, wrapping his own arms around her waist and pulling her as close as he can.

Jughead stays dormant in the doorway, just itching to get in on this hug; Archie takes notice of this, looks up at him from Veronica’s hair and says, “Don’t just stand there, Jug, get over here.”

That’s all the motivation that he needs, really. Jughead moves swiftly, using his knees to climb up onto the bed then wrap his arms around both of their shoulders. Jughead pushes his forehead against Archie’s, overjoyed when Archie pushes back, his head falling into Jughead’s collarbone.

“I missed you,” Archie says shakily, still crying between them, “I missed you both so goddamn much.”

At the same time, Veronica and Jughead both echo, “We missed you, too,” and it feels like coming home in the best way possible.

 

 

 

Jughead makes himself at home on Veronica’s couch and calls in _indefinitely_ to work with a family emergency; neither one of them can bear to be away from Archie right now.

After everything, Archie doesn’t leave the Pembrooke for two days. He’s too busy working that mess of drugs out of his system. He’s jittery and uncomfortable from the withdrawal, but at least he’s there. At least they know he’s alive now.

When he does finally leave, Veronica and Jughead are both there, one holding his hand and the other holding his shoulder as they walk with him into the Sheriff's station. He’s more anxious than he thought that he would be.  

The whole room goes silent when he comes in, one deputy even drops her coffee. Nonetheless, Sheriff Keller still greets them with half a smile and a handshake then leads them to a back room.

Veronica and Jughead can’t actually go in there while Archie gives his statement, but they are, however, allowed to watch from a two-way mirror in the next room over. Jughead doesn’t take his eyes off of him once the entire time. He notes how Archie keeps rubbing at this jaw with the pad of his thumb; Archie always used to do that when they were kids, it’s how Jughead knew when he was lying.

He can’t imagine what reason Archie would have for lying now, but he doesn’t question it at all. He doesn’t want to make Archie upset.

When they get home that afternoon, Archie asks to borrow Jughead’s phone so that he can call his mom and let her know that he’s home, catch her up to speed. He moves into the kitchen, stopping Veronica and Jughead when they try to follow him.

“I need you guys to stay in here,” he says, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get through this if I’m looking at both of you.”

Veronica opens her mouth to refute, but Jughead stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Sure thing, Archie. We’ll wait in here.”

After he walks into the other room, Veronica quietly asks, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“We’ve been mother-henning him from the second he got back, Veronica. Giving him some space isn’t the end of the world. If he needs us, he’ll ask.”

The two of them sit side by side on the couch as they listen to the phone call from the other room. They listen to him say, _“Mom? Mom, it’s Archie,”_ only to also hear him start crying not even two seconds later.

It’s awful listening to the conversation; even the small details that Archie’s shares with Mary hurt like hell to Jughead, to think that those things could have happened to him. Veronica places her hand inside of Jughead’s at some point, squeezing hard when Archie cries harder and says, _“They wouldn’t let me leave, Mom. I-I asked so many times, but t-they just said n-no.”_

Veronica gasps loudly when he says, _“I tried to leave, really, I tried.”_ She’s been shaking with anger the entire time; after a while, Jughead can’t take it anymore. He pulls Veronica to her feet then hugs her as tight as he can, holding her head to his chest.

If he’s being honest, he needs this, too.

 

 

 

After returning, Archie is… both himself and not himself, doesn’t talk much, if at all, about what happened to him while he was gone. Everyone once and a while he gets this far-away look on his face like he’s thinking of something that he wishes he could forget.

His smile isn’t as bright as it was before, but it’s still there, still trying to shine, nonetheless.

Besides the Sheriff, Archie doesn’t tell anyone where he was even though he just _appeared_ back in town. Jughead and Veronica don’t try to ask; they know that Archie will tell them whenever he’s ready. Besides, it’s been so long now that everyone who was around when he first went missing is too old to care. Archie’s not mad about it. He’s never much been one for the spotlight anyway. If everyone was talking about him or staring every time that he left the house it would only make things worse.

Archie always holds Veronica and Jughead so tenderly now, like he’s making up for lost time. Sure, he was affectionate with his friends before, but it’s different now, more intentional.

After a month of being home, Archie asks if the three of them can go visit his dad- or, his grave, anyway. Though he’s been more and more comfortable about leaving the Pembrooke without one of them going with him, Veronica and Jughead still understand that this a big deal for him. Losing a parent never gets any easier.  

It’s a quiet drive over to the cemetery. The three of them are squished in the front seat of Jughead’s old pick-up truck, Archie fit snuggly between the two of them. His fingers drum anxiously against his knee the closer that they get.

Their shoes all sink slightly into the grass as they climb out of the car. October had its first snow the night before, and despite just barely covering the grass the sun is still trying to melt all of it away. The three of them stop just a few feet short of the headstone; none of them miss the way that Archie’s breath hitches in his throat when his eyes rake over the date of death.

“…I wished that it was wrong,” Archie tells them, his voice raspy, “I wanted it to be a dream. That I’d get to come back and it would be untrue somehow.”

Veronica and Jughead share a sad look with each other, still standing on either side of him. Veronica holds Archie’s hand in both of her own, her cheek pressed against his arm. Jughead holds him from behind, arms wrapping around his shoulders and hands meeting in the center of his chest, right over his heart.

“I’m glad it was you two that found me,” Archie says, still holding onto both of them as tight as he can, “I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anyone else.”

 

 

 

Reggie comes back for a visit six weeks after Archie comes home and for once gets a hotel room at the five seasons instead of just staying with Veronica like he usually would.

It’s awkward as hell, honestly. Watching her current… something and formerly kidnapped once boyfriend share a bro hug is easily one of the oddest things that Veronica has witnessed this year alone. Reggie doesn’t end up staying very long, just drops by long enough to make sure that Archie is still in one piece and ask if he and Veronica can talk for a minute _alone_.

She already knows where this is going to go, and she hates it.   

They find a bench right outside of the building, far away from anyone who could be listening through the thin walls of her apartment. For once, Veronica doesn’t do much of the talking, she’s not exactly sure what to say that won’t make this worse somehow.

Reggie tells her that he understands that she’s going to want to go back to Archie, says he kind of expected that would happen if he did ever end up coming back. Her and Archie haven’t even talked about what they used to be since he’s been home, but that’s beside the point. It hurts her that Reggie has known this all along but stayed with her anyway, _loved her_ despite.

Veronica’s heart sinks into her chest when she finally manages to make herself look up at him. “I’m sorry,” she says, “That I couldn’t give you what you wanted. You deserve that, Reggie.”

“It’s okay,” he shrugs, “I’d be an ass to try and keep you from him now that he’s actually here again. He’s your person; I can’t change that.”

She really, honestly, can’t believe her life some days.

Back inside, Veronica finds Archie in her bedroom, apparently having just taken a shower, still drying off his hair. The white t-shirt he’s in- the same one he was in when they found him in that godforsaken park- stretches across his shoulders in a near seam splitting matter, it’s restricting his range of motion; Archie breaks into a grin when he catches Veronica watching him try and fail to still dry off.

“I think this shirt is too small,” he says, “I need some new clothes- besides Jughead’s, I mean.”

“You’ve gained weight, that’s a good thing, Archie. We can go shopping some time tomorrow, find you a few things that actually fit the way that they’re supposed to. Sound good?”

“That sounds great, Veronica,” his bangs are still dripping water onto his face, onto the front of his shirt, “Shit, I can’t- will you help?”

Veronica laughs lightly but takes pity on him anyway. She pulls him to the bed, sitting on her calves across from him as she moves the towel over the front of his hair, then down the sides of his face, catching the stray droplets of water.

“How is it that you’ve managed to get more water on you _after_ your shower, Archie?”

“It’s a level of skill only so few can acquire, really.”

Both of them laugh, and for a second, it’s like nothing’s changed- like the last three years never even happened.

He’s watching her now, as intent as ever. Archie’s warm, brown eyes staring into her own. They’ve been alone with each other in the past few weeks, sure, but not in moments like this- not with something so oddly intimate. She finds herself looking away, suddenly enraptured by the light blue towel in her hands.

“We were still together, when I left,” Archie says quietly, one of his hands coming up to cradle her arm.

“I remember,” she replies, just as soft. That had been the worst part of it all. That her boyfriend was just out in the world somewhere and she didn’t have a clue as to whether he was alive or not. That haunted her more often than she liked to admit, made it nearly impossible to sleep at night.

“It was really hard,” Veronica says after a beat, “Not having you here… felt like I couldn’t go on without you for a long time. Sometimes I would see someone else with red hair or wide shoulders, and for just a split second I would think it was you, coming back to me somehow… I hated being wrong.”

Archie’s hand moves from Veronica’s elbow to her hip, a touch so familiar that it’s still second nature for the both of them; his outstretched legs press into the side of her thigh. All of her senses feel heightened in a way she hasn’t felt in years, doesn’t doubt that it’s all because of Archie.

“Were you alone?” she finds herself asking, “The entire time that you were gone?”

Archie nods minorly. “For the most part, yeah. The guys who took me- they brought me food and stuff sometimes, but they weren’t exactly good company. Thought I made too much noise, at first they only stuck around me so that they could shut me up.”

Veronica holds the back of his head in her hand when his eyes start to go glassy, she’s trying to keep him from going back to _that_ place- wherever it is. This is the most that Archie’s mentioned about being taken since he’s been home and _damn_ if Veronica isn’t all kinds of curious to know more. As much as she wants to ask, she doesn’t want to make Archie feel pressured into talking about things before he’s ready. 

“What did you do? To pass the time, I mean.”

“Tried to think about my family, all the things I could come home to someday.” Archie sits forward until he can rest his head against her shoulder, he pulls her closer with the hand on her hip until she’s straddling his lap. He leaves a kiss on the outside of her shoulder, her collarbone, the base of her throat- moving closer and closer towards her mouth.

“I thought about you…” he tells Veronica, placing a warm kiss right under her jaw, “Everyday, for three years.” 

Veronica tips her head back subconsciously, eyes fluttering as Archie’s mouth finds the pulse point of her neck; there’s a warmth building in the pit of her stomach that only Archie Andrews has ever been able to bring out of her.

She gasps, tugging on his hair “Arch- _Archie_.”

“Please, Ronnie,” he says, just inches away from her face, both of them breathing heavy now. “Can we…”

He hasn’t called her that since the day they found him, since he was half lucid in the back of Reggie’s car. She’s so infatuated by the sound of it that she doesn’t even give his question a second thought. Veronica doesn’t even bother with words, just pulls his mouth to hers in a blinding kiss, finally getting back to everything they’ve missed out on in the last three years. 

For once, they take their time with things. It’s slow and sweet and everything that Veronica privately wished that she would get the chance to do again. She keeps her arms around Archie’s shoulder the entire time, pulling him closer to her every chance that she gets. Feeling his bare skin against hers makes Veronica feel like she’s come alive again.

Even after both of them have finished, they don’t stop touching each other. Archie drops down onto his side right next to Veronica, pressed against her side, hand resting on her stomach; Veronica’s own hand curls around Archie’s arm.

Archie drops his head into the curve of Veronica’s neck. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come for me that day in the park.”

“Probably died,” Veronica remarks, halfway joking, “Or worse, you would’ve found a way home without me.”

 

 

 

They’re all sitting around Veronica’s kitchen table, surrounded by Chinese take out when Jughead looks up from his phone out of nowhere. “Oh shit.”

“What? What is it?” Veronica asks.

Jughead looks right at her. “It’s Tuesday.”

The realization comes over her in a second; they haven’t had a single Tuesday night dinner at Gloria’s since Archie’s been back home. Veronica sits back in her seat, shoulders falling. “Oh my god.”

Archie looks between the two of them, baring confusion. Through a mouthful of chicken egg roll, he asks, “Am I missing something here?”

Veronica and Jughead both look at him, then back at each other. Jughead shifts in his seat, a bright look on his face. “How do you feel about chicken and waffles?”

In the end, Archie ends up not coming, says that going to Gloria’s is their thing and that it should stay that way. He would feel like he was impeding on their space and that they should take time for just the two of them. Also says, “Besides, I still got a billion movies to catch up on with Netflix. Seriously, you guys, go. I’ll be fine.”

Gloria herself greets them at the door, eyes bright as her smile. “And here I thought you two forgot about us. C’mon, we gotta table waiting for y’all in the back.”

In some way, it’s like they haven’t missed the last nearly eight weeks, like nothing changed at all.

As soon as they’re both seated and have a glass of iced tea- Jughead’s extra sweet- they get down to business. Business meaning figuring out how they're going to track down the guys that held Archie for so long, and without anyone finding out, either.

“You think he knows who did this?”

“He was there for three years,” Jughead deadpans, “How could he not know?”

“Did you forget the part where he was _drugged out of his mind_ when we found him? That couldn’t have been the only time, that would be too easy.”

“Fair, but it’s also logical that he’s just not telling us something. There’s so much we still don’t know, like the why’s and _how_ , specifically.”

“Don’t you think that’s something that he should tell us on his own time, Jughead? He’s got three years worth of god only knows what kind of trauma to work through. We can’t force that on him.” 

“Yeah but if we don’t push at least a little then he’ll never tell us anything. You know Archie, he’s like the king of holding things in until he bursts. I get that you don’t want to push him for details because of everything that happened in high school-.”

Veronica glares at him without lifting her head, “Watch it there, Jones.”

“But it’s like you said- our lives are all so different, especially his. Maybe things will be different this time around, maybe he’ll want to talk to us. You said that he mentioned something yesterday, right?”

“Yeah, for a second, but that was just non-specifics; he said something about the _guys_ that took him. That was it.”

“Okay. Well now at least we know there was more than one of them. How ‘bout this, later we can-.”

The shrill ring of Veronica’s phone cuts Jughead off; he lets out a displeased sigh.

“It’s only been two months since we’ve been here,” he remarks as she digs around in her purse, “You did not seriously forget the ‘no phone’ rule.”

“Give me a break, I told Archie I would leave it on if he needed something. Speaking of the red-haired broad- Archie?”

Even from across the table, Jughead can hear the sound of Archie’s labored, panicked breathing on the other end of the phone; he freezes in his seat, looking up at Veronica.

“Archie? Archie, what’s wrong?” she tries. Veronica’s own eyes go wide as they meet Jughead’s; she listens for another minute before dropping her phone back into her bag, scrambling to get up. “We have to go.”

“Why, what’s-?”

“I don’t know, he couldn’t tell me, but Archie’s freaking out. We have to get home right now.”

Both of their chairs screech as they drag across the floor; Jughead drops a handful of random bills onto the table, hoping it’s enough to cover the bill.

The drive from the Pembrooke to Gloria’s is usually a ten-minute drive, but today Jughead makes it back in less than six; all he’s thinking about is getting back to Archie and making sure that everything is okay. There’s a nagging voice in the back of his head telling Jughead that someone has come to take Archie away again, making him worry that if they don’t get there soon enough he and Veronica won’t be able to save him this time.

Both Veronica and Jughead are practically vibrating with worry as they rush inside of the building and running through the lobby at top speed; Veronica fumbles with the key as they finally reach her door, her own hands shaking now.

“Veronica, _c’mon_.”

“Shut _up_ , Jughead, _I know_.” She bites, getting the lock to do what she wants it to.

The door swings open and for a moment all is still; they can’t see or hear Archie anywhere. A beat later and a closer look shows Archie sitting on the other side of the dining room table in the far corner, curled up against the wall with his hands covering his ears and eyes squeezed shut. His erratic breathing is suddenly the loudest thing in the room.

He looks absolutely terrified.

“Oh my god, Archie.” Veronica says, rushing in with Jughead hot on her tail. 

Both of them drop down to their knees on either side of him. Veronica doesn’t touch him right away, too afraid of making this worse somehow. Jughead, on the other hand, touches him immediately, curving his hand around the back of Archie’s neck, using the other to pull Archie’s left hand away from his ear.

“Archie. Dude, listen to me,” Jughead says in a calm voice. “You’re not back there, alright? You’re home. You’re at the Pembrooke with me and Veronica. No one is gonna hurt you here, but I need you to breathe for me, alright? Just try and take a deep breath.”

Archie rasps, “Ron- Ronnie?”

“I’m here- I’m here, sweetheart,” she says in rush, placing her hand over his racing heart. “We’re both here- just breathe, okay?” 

Archie makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat, like he was trying to breathe but it got stuck on the way out. He tries again and _thank god_ this one comes out a bit cleaner, sounds less like he’s just run a marathon. His glossy, brown eyes finally lose their tightly shut stance, sliding open and staring at his feet.

Jughead speaks softly, still holding the back of Archie's head. “There you go. Easy, Arch, _easy_. Just give it a minute, take your time- but come back to us, alright?”

His body begins to shake as he comes down from his anxious high, his arms and legs leaving their tense positions and spreading out finally. Archie still breathes heavily as he gathers his senses again. His head thumps back against the wall, looking frustrated with himself now more than afraid.

“I bet we’d be more comfortable over on the couch." Jughead offers, You wanna try moving over there?”

Archie nods, letting Veronica and Jughead help him to his feet. His legs feel like gelatin as he walks over; he drops down in messy fashion as soon as the couch is within reach. He sighs loudly, leaning against the arm of the couch.

Gently, Veronica says, “Hey, talk to us, Archie. What happened? What got you so worked up?”

“Hey,” Jughead interjects, “Maybe not right now-.”

“It’s fine, Jug,” Archie interrupts, “I should probably talk about the things that happened to me. I’ve been back long enough; you guys deserve some answers.”

“Okay,” Veronica responds timidly, giving Jughead a _that was easier than I thought it would be_ look. “How about we start with today. Can you tell me what had you so panicked?”

He looks down at his hands, wringing his fingers together; when it takes him a minute to respond Veronica starts to think that maybe this was a bad idea after all. Maybe they shouldn’t have pushed so soon.

“I heard a noise in the hallway and thought someone was trying to get in,” Archie says, quietly, “I thought they were coming back to get me.”

Veronica and Jughead look at each other curiously; Jughead crosses his arms over his chest.

“They? _They_ who, Archie?”

“The Serpents; the ones who were holding me captive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the closest I've ever gotten to writing to smut can you tell
> 
> Leave your opinions I guess???


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“You. Are not. To blame for this.”_
> 
> Bitterly, he grumbles, “Easy for you to say, you didn’t almost get him killed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check end notes for Trigger Warnings.

The very second that Archie says the word _Serpents_ Jughead feels his stomach leap into his throat.

_No,_ he wants to say _. No, he has to be wrong. He has to._

“Southside Serpents were the ones that took you?” Veronica asks, astonished, “Jughead, I thought you said they disbanded years ago.”

He jerks out of his alarmed state at the sound of his name, a wild look in his eye, “Th-they did. It was- …it was right before you left, Archie.”

Archie shifts anxiously, not meeting Jughead’s eye; he’s scrambling to find a way to make all of this make sense somehow. His head is buzzing with all of this new information.

Archie keeps talking before Jughead can react any further. “I think they thought that if they made me disappear somehow that- that you’d want to come looking for me, Jughead. And that you’d need help finding me. They wanted you to get the Serpents back together again. They needed a reason to get you back.”

“So, what? They just- kept you holed up for three years?” Veronica says sharply, “As a means of motive to start some ridiculous gang again?”

Archie nods; she asks, “Where were you? Do you know?”

“The Whyte Wyrm, down in the basement.”

The panic he’s feeling doubles so abruptly that he can’t control it even if he wanted to. Jughead gasps suddenly and throws his hand over his mouth. It’s all that he can do to not lose his lunch all over Veronica’s polished floors. He stumbles back, rushing towards her bathroom; he’s not in there more than two seconds before his body finally takes over. Jughead drops to his knees, heaving as he loses his lunch. He can hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, drowning out nearly everything else. There are angry tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.

_This is my fault. I caused this to happen. I introduced the serpents to Archie. All of this happened to him because of me. God, what have I done?_

Jughead doesn’t even realize that he’d left the door open until Veronica’s heels click against the tile floor.

She kneels next to him, laying a hand on his shoulder and talking quietly in his ear. “Jughead. Listen to me,” she states. “I know what you’re thinking right now but this _is_ _not_ your fault. You didn’t do this to Archie, you have to believe me.”

Jughead’s neck snaps to the side to face her, a tear making a track down the side of his face.

“We had him,” he whines. “We had him- he was right under our noses _the entire time_ and we didn’t know. _How could we not know?”_  

Veronica copies his sad face, at a loss for words now. She presses her cheek against his shoulder, moving her hand down to the small of Jughead’s back, pulling him closer. She’s just as taken aback and mad about all of this as he is. 

The two of them sit there in the quiet, Jughead still tremoring slightly. After a minute, Veronica picks up her head and then rests her hand over Jughead’s chest, just like she’d done for Archie not even ten minutes ago.

Jughead feels like his whole world just got tipped on its side all over again.

“C’mon,” Veronica says, standing up, “We should go back out there, before Archie works himself into a fit again, preferably.”

Jughead sighs, but stands anyway; he knows she’s right. His shoulders go tense as he walks back into the living room, his eyes landing on Archie almost instantly.

Archie stands as well when Jughead comes in, his face apologetic. “Jughead, if I-.”

“It’s fine,” he interrupts, “I'm not upset with you, Arch, I'm just… it's not you.”

Archie nods timidly, taking his seat again.

_It can’t be true… it can’t,_ Jughead keeps telling himself. _The Serpents would never do something like that. Archie must be wrong. He must be mixed up or just misremembering things. He had all kinds of drugs in him when we got to him again there’s no way that-_

“I hate to ask, Archie,” Veronica says cautiously, “But… what did they do to you, while you were there?”

He shrugs, “At first, they were just trying to keep me quiet so they wouldn’t get caught. They’d drug me or beat me up if I said or did something that they didn’t like.”

“Like trying to escape?”

Archie nods, “Yeah, they didn’t appreciate that too much. I tried, more than once… but after a while, I just gave up. I was tired of them hurting me all the time. I figured that someone would either come for me eventually or I’d just rot down there until I died.”

Jughead feels like he’s going to be sick. _Again_.   

“I didn’t think that they’d actually let me leave,” Archie continues, quietly, “I think they must have been bored of trying to hide me- or someone was getting suspicious, I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I thought it’d make them change their minds. They beat me up right before- so I didn’t realize what was happening till I got thrown in back of the car.”

“That explains the bruises and the bloody nose,” Veronica notes. “Do you know what they drugged you with?”

Archie shrugs, “Beats me. I didn’t ask, figured it wouldn’t help my case, they’d do it anyways.”

“You keep saying _they_ ,” Jughead says, willing his voice not to break, “They who? Which Serpents, Arch?”

He bites his lip, stalling as much as he can; Archie’s got this look on his face like its hurting him just to think about all of this. Finally, he mutters, “Sweet Pea… and Fangs. They were the ones doing it.”

Jughead bellows _“Sweet Pea?”_ at the exact same moment Veronica shrieks, _“Fangs? Are you serious?”_

Archie flinches from their sudden outburst; Jughead scoffs, shaking his head.

“I can’t believe this,” he gripes, “I trusted those guys- they were my friends.”

“In another lifetime, yes,” Veronica reminds him, “But you got out for a reason, Jughead. Remember?”

“I’m starting to think that I never should’ve joined in the first place,” he mutters, dropping into the love seat across from the sofa.

Veronica gives him her own dejected look before laying a hand on Archie’s shoulder. “Alright. So how are we going to do this? Do you wanna call Keller in the morning or-?”

“No,” Archie says shortly, “We can’t call Keller.”

“Why not? We know who hurt you now, Archie, we can get them behind bars for what they did-.”

“No! Veronica, you don’t understand. I told Sheriff Keller that I didn’t know who it was that hurt me, that they wore masks the whole time. If I change my statement now it’ll look suspicious.”

_Ah,_ Jughead thinks, _so that’s what he was lying about that day; I was wondering if it would ever come up._

Out loud he asks, “If you knew then why not say something earlier?”

Archie rubs his hands together, looking skeptical. “I thought that since it was guys you knew then… that you’d want to take care of it, Jughead.”

Jughead sits upright in his chair, nodding knowingly. He should’ve suspected that Archie would say something like this.

“Okay then,” Veronica says, a tightness in her voice; she looks as Jughead pointedly, “Jughead- what would _you_ like to do about all of this?”

He weighs his options for a while, trying to think of what’s least likely to backfire on all of them. On one hand, Jughead could let this go; the Serpents aren’t a part of his life anymore and he’d really like to keep it that way. Going back to them- even for the smallest of reasons- feels like he’d be walking into a death trap. One that he can’t get away from this time.   

On the other hand, these guys hurt _Archie_. Not only that, but Archie already suspected that Jughead would want to take the lead on this since it was _his_ friends that hurt him in the first place. He’s never been one to say no to Archie, and he certainly doesn’t plan to start now- especially now knowing what Sweet Pea and Fangs did to him.

“I’m gonna call Toni,” he decides, “See if she knows if the knows the whereabouts of Sweet Pea and Fangs.”

“Are you sure she’ll want to help?” Veronica asks, “Or even know, for that matter?”

“She’s one of the only Serpents by blood that's still around; if something is happening with them then she’ll know.” Jughead makes a move for the door, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“I’m gonna home for a bit, try and make sense of this, maybe come up with a plan.”

“Jughead, wait-,” Archie interjects, getting up, “You don’t have to-.”

“I need a minute, alright, Arch? I just-,” Jughead sighs, frustrated that he doesn’t have all the words to put together how he’s feeling right now. “I need some time, for myself. I’ll call you tomorrow, I promise.”

Jughead ducks out the door without another word, not looking at either of them. He picks up speed the further away he gets from Veronica’s apartment, just wanting to get out of there already.

There’s a bothered, pissed off feeling building in his chest that he can’t push down anymore; he can’t let anyone else be witness to this inevitable explosion.

He drops his keys on the blacktop trying to get his car unlocked, then again just trying to get his truck to start. When it happens a third time, Jughead groans loudly, exclaiming, “God- _fucking dammit!”_

The side of his fist smashes against the steering wheel over and over again, all of his anger coming out of him at once. The horn blares once, twice- an accurate representation of just how loud Jughead wishes he could yell right now.

_I should’ve known the Serpents would try something like this to get me back. I should’ve known that they were behind all this. I could have gone looking for him. I could have done something to help Archie. Fuck, I should have helped sooner. Why didn’t I help sooner?_

His hits get messier as he goes; the sloppy aim causes him to miss his target. Jughead’s knuckles _crack_ against the dashboard, finally halting him as the pain in his hand gets to be too much.

Jughead sags in his seat, forehead touching the top of the steering wheel as his fury turns into regret. The angry tears are back again- unrelenting; his discontent is demanding to be felt. His shoulders shake as he cries; if anyone walked by the truck right now, they’d definitely think that Jughead was having some mental breakdown. Then again- he kind of is.

_They could have killed him. They could have taken him away for good and it would’ve been my fault. All of this happened to Archie because of me._

It takes him a minute, but eventually, he calms himself down, sighing once before deciding to finally get out of there. Jughead reaches forward, picking his keys up off the crumb-covered floor. He winces at the pain in his fingers when he tries to curl his hand around his keys; he’s definitely going to regret that in the morning.

Once he’s got the car started, he drops he lets his arm drop into his lap; this isn’t the first time he’s had to drive around one-handed, likely won’t be the last. As Jughead drives back towards the five seasons, he can’t stop thinking about Archie and the almost ghost-like look he’d had on his face when they found him in the park.

Knowing what he knows now- that people he used to call _his friends_ did that to Archie just to try and sway him into getting the gang back together- Jughead feels guiltier than he has in years. There’s a worried, persistent voice in the back of his head, telling him:

_Archie is never going to forgive me for this._

 

 

 

He really had expected Veronica to call him as soon as he left The Pembrooke. Instead, she gives him an hour; he’s surprised she even held out that long.

Jughead’s lying on his couch, a bag of ice on his hand when she finally calls; Veronica doesn’t even give him a chance to say hello.

_“You don’t get to blame yourself for this.”_

“Too late,” Jughead remarks, “That train has already left the station, no coming back from this one.”

_“You couldn’t have known that Sweet Pea and Fangs would do something like this, Jughead.”_

“But that’s just it- _I should have_. I was around them for years, it should’ve been obvious that they would pull something like this. Before I ever even joined the Serpents, Tall Boy and his friends beat up some guy just to prove that they were loyal to me and my dad; Sweet Pea and Fangs were trying to get my attention by taking Archie away from us- I should’ve realized it sooner.”

_“You weren’t even in the Serpents anymore when all of this went down,”_ Veronica reminds him, _“You got out because you wanted to be done with it.”_

“I got out of the gang because I was tired of dragging my friends through the mud with this whole mess. I kept making things worse for people, I was tired of hurting them… instead I got Archie held captive for three years because I couldn’t see what was right in front of me.”

_“You. Are not. To blame for this.”_

Bitterly, he grumbles, “Easy for you to say, you didn’t almost get him killed.”

_“Didn’t I?”_ She remarks, _“Need I remind you that my father got Archie sent to jail when we were teenagers?”_

Shit, he’d forgotten all about that; their teen years- all the horrible things that happened back then- it feels like a lifetime ago to Jughead.  

“I’m sorry, I- I didn’t even think-.”

_“It’s fine. You know why? Because I forgave myself for it, despite also knowing it wasn’t my fault. You can do the same thing, you know.”_

Jughead changes the subject. “Where’s Archie, anyway?”

_“Asleep, that panic attack took a lot out of him… are you gonna be okay?”_

He looks down at his hand; there are bruises forming around his knuckles that hurt just as much as hitting the dashboard did in the first place. Jughead settles with, “I haven’t decided yet.” 

_“Well, whatever you settle on- you still have people behind you, supporting you through this. Don’t forget that little detail when you’re spiraling down the rabbit hole, alright?”_

“Yeah, sure okay… Veronica?”

_“Yeah?”_

In a voice barely above a whisper, Jughead asks, “…what if he hates me for this?”

_“This is Archie we’re talking about,”_ she states, _“I don’t think he knows how to hate anybody.”_

_He could_ , Jughead thinks to himself, _he could- and that list could very well start with me if don’t handle things the way he wants me to_.

 

 

 

Toni is already standing outside of the Whyte Wyrm when Jughead pulls up in his truck; he can’t remember the last time he saw her- but he knows it had to be for a better reason than this.

“I thought you wanted out,” Toni calls to him as he struts over; Jughead ignores the statement.

“Are they in there? Both of them?”

She nods. “Tied up and in the basement just like you asked; are you sure you wanna do this?”

Jughead hadn’t told her much about the situation with Archie, just that Sweet Pea and Fangs had been behind it and he was looking for some payback. On instinct, he wants to say no, wants to turn around, go home, and forget all of this ever happened. But there’s still that part of him that is downright furious that the serpents did this to Archie; he needs to do this, for his own piece of mind if nothing else.  

What he says is: “Believe me, Toni- I don’t have a choice. I’d do this no matter what, Archie or not.”

It’s only mostly true, but she doesn’t need to know that. This is happening, regardless of how he’s feeling.

His heart rate spikes as he walks inside, navigating his way to the stairs that lead to the basement. Just like Toni promised, Sweet Pea and Jughead are both there; Sweet Pea is tied to a chair in the middle of the room, hands bound behind his back. Fangs is in the corner with his own hands tied up in front of him and a stream of water works making their way down the sides of his face. Both of them give him fearful looks when he walks into the room.

A part of Jughead wants to take pity on them and let them leave, but the other part of them wants to laugh at the sight; after all, they got themselves into this mess.

“Boys,” he says, feigning confidence, “Long time no see… I think it’s about time that we had a little chat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends, there's some light vomiting (From Jughead) near the beginning here and what could be considered Self Harm near the middle (Jughead punches the steering wheel when he gets mad). Just a heads up.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Damn,” Jughead remarks, “You two are a bigger bunch of idiots than I thought.”
> 
> “Takes one to know one.” Sweet Pea grumbles. 
> 
> Jughead feels his blood boil every time that Sweet Pea decides to run his mouth; there's a switchblade just burning a hole in his pocket, dying to be used.
> 
> “Archie,” he says, taking long, leisurely steps back towards Sweet Pea, “Tell us again exactly what they did to you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Violence in this chapter but it's not too bad imo, if you think I need to change the tag then let me know. Thanks for reading my fic, I hope y'all enjoy the ending!

The first thing he does is rip the duct tape off of Sweet Pea’s mouth. A strange feeling builds inside of him when Sweet Pea groans at the action.

They’re both adults now, both much closer to being thirty than they are to being teenagers or back in high school- and yet Jughead finds himself feeling seventeen all over again. Feeling like he’s back in the place of being the Serpent King. That is not an age or a title for that matter, he would ever want to repeat.

Neither one had really worked out in his favor. He lost a lot of relationships during that time, ones he thought would last him a lifetime- his friends included.

It had taken two weeks for Toni to track Sweet Pea and Fangs down; if Jughead is lucky, it’ll only take twenty minutes for him to get his point across.

Jughead decides to leave Fangs alone for now; judging by the upset look on his face, he hadn’t been the one that was behind all of this originally.

“What?” Sweet Pea says mocking, “The Serpent King comes back to his throne and he can’t even be bothered to wear his skins?”

He hadn’t worn his Serpent jacket- or his beanie for that matter. It had been a last-minute decision. Jughead wanted Sweet Pea and Fangs to see him in his realest, purest form. He wants them to know that he means business, that this isn’t something they can just get away from.

Instead of responding, Jughead punches Sweet Pea in the face once, twice, before asking, “Why did you take Archie away?”

Sweet Pea just laughs, spits the blood out of his mouth. “Don’t act like you don’t know, Jones. Might’ve been a shitty leader but you’re not that dumb.”

He ignores the comment about his leadership in trade for another hit in the face; Sweet Pea’s face snaps to the side with a resounding crack and he works his jaw afterward.

Before he does anything else, Jughead lets out a low whistle, signaling for Veronica and Archie to come into the room. Veronica takes her place a few feet behind Jughead while Archie goes straight for the stool in the adjacent corner, eyes locked on both of his captors.

At first, he’d been wary about bringing them, about letting them in on all of this. But Jughead also knew that they wanted revenge just as much as him, if not more so. Besides, if he ends up chickening out, he’s got a feeling that Veronica and Archie will help him finish the job one way or another.

“Why the peanut gallery?” Sweet Pea asks.

“Because.” Jughead says flatly, “I want them to hear you admit to everything you did- and believe me, you will.”

Sweet Pea scoffs and Veronica chimes in from the back.

“I believe he asked you a question,” she says, sharp as a spike, “Now- tell us, why did you take Archie away? Why did you hide him down here?”

“Cause he’s Jones’ Achilles heel, ain’t he? The gang was falling apart and we needed someone to bring it back. So I figured: hey, why not take a shot at ole Archie Andrews, that ought to get Jughead’s attention. If we got Jughead into the gang again then others would have to follow. Didn’t take much convincing to get Fangs on board with the idea.” 

“So, what? You thought kidnapping someone for your own personal gain was the best way to get my attention?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Sweet Pea responds, a smug look on his face.

“Yeah,” Archie bites from the back, “Three years too late.”

Much as he wants to, Jughead doesn’t look back at him. There’s a sinking feeling in his chest that’s trying to spread through the rest of him and makes its way across his face. He can’t let his guard down right now; if he breaks for even a second then this whole thing is going to fall apart.

“If you wanted the gang back together so badly then why not start your own?”

“That’s not the same and you know it!”

“Then what the hell did you need me for?” Jughead yells, “Huh? Why?”

“Because for whatever stupid fucking reason, you’re the only one that anyone would trust to be their leader!” Sweet Pea yells back, “I tried doing it my own way. Asked every Serpent I could think of, even called your old man, but no one would side with me.”

He scoffs, “Yeah, no surprise there.”

Sweet Pea lunges for him angrily despite still being strapped to the chair; Jughead ignores him and continues talking. 

“Why hold him up for so long? Better yet, if you were waiting around for me to notice, then why let him leave to begin with?”

“Because we got tired of twiddling our thumbs trying to figure out when you were going to look up at what was right in front of you. That- and Fangs over there has a big mouth.”

Fangs tries to speak around the blue bandana in his mouth, but none of it makes any sense.

Jughead takes pity on him, stomping over there and pulling the gag down past his chin, asking, “What the hell is he talking about?”

Fangs breathes heavily, tripping over his words. “A couple months back- I was in the grocery store, talking on the phone to Sweets you know? Asking about food and stuff-.”

“Get _to the point_ , Fangs.”

“We’d been going on about Andrews for twenty minutes or something when I was on the phone, and when I looked up you were standing like ten feet away, Jones.”

Jughead feels his lungs catch mid-breath.

“I wasn’t sure how much you’d heard- or if you’d noticed me at all- so I figured we’d been caught. The gig was up. We had to let him go. Dropped him off the very next day.”

He tries to cover up his gasp with a forced laugh.  

“So you mean to tell me. That you dumped Archie in an empty park at sunrise. When you thought no one would see you, all because I _might have_ heard your phone call?

Fangs nods and Jughead actually does laugh this time. He doesn’t remember hearing any phone call- or seeing Fangs in the grocery store that day for that matter. But that’s not important. They were both there in one fleeting moment; if Jughead hadn’t gone there that day, he wouldn’t have been seen by Fangs and they wouldn't have let Archie go- he might have never gotten Archie back. All of this out of sheer dumb luck.

He really, seriously, can’t believe his life some days.

“Damn,” Jughead remarks, “You two are a bigger bunch of idiots than I thought.”

“Takes one to know one.” Sweet Pea grumbles. 

Jughead feels his blood boil every time that Sweet Pea decides to run his mouth; there's a switchblade just burning a hole in his pocket, dying to be used.

“Archie,” he says, taking long, leisurely steps back towards Sweet Pea, “Tell us again _exactly_ what they did to you.”

“They beat me. Nearly every day, for a year.”

Jughead lands a right hook in the middle of Sweet Pea's stomach.

“And if I tried to move or escape, they'd drug me until I couldn't move.”

Jughead lands another hit and Sweet Pea gasps like he's had the wind knocked out of him.

“If I talked too much then they'd refuse to feed me.”

Next, he swipes at the legs of Sweet Pea's chair until it gives way, sending him crashing to the ground. Jughead kicks him once, hard in the ribs.

“Once, when I asked for water Fangs dumped it on my head and called it a shower.”

Jughead holds Fangs throat in his hand as soon as he's close enough to touch, watching his eyes go wide with fear.

“Both of them would leave me alone for days at a time and I'd be stuck wondering if they were ever going to come back.”

In one fluid motion, Jughead takes Fangs’ legs out from under him; his temple smacks loudly against the concrete floor.  

“Sweet Pea was behind most of it,” Archie says, “Pretty sure it was his idea to leave me for dead on that sidewalk.”

Jughead leaves his dusty footprint against Fangs’ chest before stalking back over to where Sweet Pea is on the floor; the wooden chair is mostly in shambles now, but he hasn’t managed to break himself free yet. Jughead bends over him, grabbing the front of his hair to holds Sweet Pea’s head up.

The switchblade that was once in his pocket now finds itself in Jughead’s right hand. It springs open, the pointed tip hovering over Sweet Pea’s chest, right where his heart is.

“Give me a reason,” Jughead says, so low that only he can hear, “Give me a good reason that I shouldn’t kill you both right here. I dare you.”

Sweet Pea doesn’t say anything, just snarls his lip and looks away; Jughead drops his hair with a resounding thud, stepping back finally. Jughead takes a step towards Archie, looking him right in the eye “You still wanna do this? Like we talked about?”

Archie nods, uncrossing his arms; there’s a taut look on his face.

“Do what?” Sweet Pea demands, ever the charming one.

“We’re going to leave you two down here with the door unlocked,” Veronica tells them, “You’re welcome to leave when you please… or when you can stand again.”

“And what if we decide to call the cops?” Sweet Pea barks; he’s managed to untangle himself from the mess of the chair and sit up.

“Oh, you won’t,” Jughead replies coolly, turning back towards him, “No one is ever going to hear about this, because _we know exactly what you did to him_. So, if you two know what’s good for you- _you’re not gonna say a damn word_ … understood?”

Sweet Pea ignores his piercing glare while Fangs nods in the far corner; that’s enough for him.

“Good,” Jughead says, firmly. “We’re done here… don’t make me come after you again. Believe me- I won’t be near as gracious next time around.”

He turns on his heel, walking swiftly out of the room. Now that he’s no longer looking at Sweet Pea and Fangs, Jughead can feel his resolve beginning to break down; he’s got at most two minutes before his brain starts to shut down and block out everything that just happened. He’s watching Archie walk in front of him when a hand wrapping around his elbow halts him halfway to the staircase.

“Jughead,” Veronica says gently, turning him to face her. The hand on his elbow moves to the side of his face, guiding him forward as she presses a soft kiss to his forehead. She whispers, “Thank you.”

Jughead just nods, his own trembling hand squeezing her free one; even after they’ve reached the car, he can’t bring himself to let go.

 

 

 

As soon as he’s back in his own space, his own apartment, Jughead flops down onto to the couch and falls asleep; it’s his best form of decompressing. He’s awoken later by the sound of someone knocking on his door, he doesn’t have a clue to what time it is. He rubs the sleep out of his eye as he makes his way to the door- hopefully, it's not a problem with his staff.

What he’s not expecting to see is Archie on the other side of his door, already smiling.

“Oh, hey- what are you doing here?” 

Archie tilts his head to the side, “I called you like four times, dude- I didn’t get an answer, I thought I should come check on you.”

“Ah. Shit, sorry. I fell asleep right after we got back, my phone must have died- here; come in. You want a beer or something?”

“Nah, no- I’m good… so today was, kind of a lot.”

Jughead stills, looking over at him curiously. “Yeah? …Did you wanna talk about it-.”

“Actually, I wanted to see if you did.”

_Oh._

“Oh,” he says, slightly stunned.

Archie shrugs, “You didn’t say much on the ride home; I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

Jughead shrugs right back, fumbling to find the words to say. “It’s nothing, really. I’m just- trying to wrap my around all of it still, I guess.”

“I get that,” he replies with a nod, “But, Jug, you know, none of this- what Sweet Pea and Fangs did, that’s not on you. You had nothing to do with that.”

_Ah, so that’s why Archie came over here._

“Did Veronica tell you-.”

“Ronnie didn’t have to tell me, Jughead. I know you. You’ve been acting cagey around me for two weeks since I told you; I know how you get when you’re feeling guilty.”

Dumb as it sounds, sometimes Jughead forgets that Archie _really has_ known him his entire life, that he still knows the ins and outs of him.

“Well, that and…” Archie trails off.  

“And what, Archie?”

“…I heard what you said, that day in Veronica’s after you guys came to rescue me.”

Jugheads eyebrows furrow, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“ _What if needing me gets him killed_? That’s what you said, I heard you.” Archie reminds him. “At first I thought I dreamt it, cause I wasn’t really sure if I was awake or not, but Veronica told me everything later when I asked about it.”

“Arch, you really don’t have to-.”

“Yes, Jug. I do. I need you to hear this,” Archie says firmly. “I know that you’ve been beating yourself up about all of this but it’s not your fault. You and Ronnie… you’re the best things that have ever happened to me.”

Jughead feels his bottom lip begin to tremble; this is where he’s finally going to fall apart, it seems. Right in front of his best friend, nonetheless. Shakily, he says, “I got you into this mess, how can you still trust me?”

“Easy; I knew you before. Nothing’s gonna change that. A couple of assholes kicking the shit out of me isn’t going to alter my opinion of you; got it?”

Jughead nods, a wet laugh coming out of him as he swipes his hand over his face. He hasn’t felt this relieved in years; there’s a weight lifted from his shoulders that he hadn’t even realized was there to begin with. “Yeah, yeah I got it… I’m so glad that you’re back, dude.”

“I know, man, I know,” Archie says, pulling Jughead in for a tight hug, “I’m happy to be home, too.”

As the two of them stand there hugging- Jughead, still somewhat crying- he starts to feel like the bad days are finally behind them for once.

 

 

 

It takes time, of course, but things eventually come back together the way they’re supposed to. The gang starts healing in their own way, on their own time.

Jughead quits his job to put the finishing details on his novel and moves into the Pembrooke down the hall from Veronica and Archie. He’d been wary about it at first; the Pembrooke isn’t cheap in any sense and Jughead’s still scraping pennies together some days. Veronica had been more than willing to foot the bill when he expressed his concerns.

“I don’t care about the cost,” she’d told him, “I want you to finish that book so the rest of the world can finally see how great you are… stop looking at me like that, I say nice things about you all the time. It’s not my fault you don’t listen to me.”

Now, the walk over is ten seconds opposed to ten minutes. It’s a change that all of them are quite pleased with. Being together is how they work best.

Veronica has been winning cases left and right at her firm, but everyone once and a while there’s a fight she just can’t seem to win. Recently, one of her kids, a nine-year-old boy from Greendale had been forced to go back to his abusive father’s home, and not even a week later the boy had been rushed to the hospital after he was pushed down a flight of stairs. He’d passed from his injuries that next morning.

Veronica hasn’t been able to forgive herself for that one yet, for not fighting harder, but at least she’s got Archie and Jughead to help her through it.

Archie, despite everything that’s happened to him, has been able to bounce back like it’s nobody’s business. He talks to the dean and finds a way to still get his degree without having to take all of his classes again; Jughead and Veronica yell the loudest out of the whole crowd when Archie walks across the stage to accept his diploma. He’s finally going to be a music teacher.  

All of this leads them up to right now when things are _good_. Nearly eight months later, two and a half weeks into August and standing outside of Riverdale Elementary.

“I feel like a kid on their first day of school.”

“Arch,” Jughead replies, “ _It is_ your first day of school.”  

“You know what I meant,” he grumbles.

The three of them are standing across the street of the front entrance of the school, watching as buses pull up and students pour in. Archie’s been hovering anxiously in front of Veronica and Jughead for a while; he should have unlocked his classroom more than ten minutes ago.  

Jughead opens his mouth to days something else, likely another smug comment, then halts when his phone starts ringing in his inner jacket pocket. He pulls a confused face as he stares at the screen.

“Who is it, Jughead?” Veronica asks.

“No clue, I don’t recognize the area code. Sorry, give me two minutes- hello?”

He walks off to take the phone call, leaving Archie and Veronica alone. They watch as a pair of young kids chase each other across the schoolyard.   

“Can you imagine what things would be like if we had met at this age instead?” Veronica asks, “If we’d grown up together just like you and Betty and Jughead did. Do you think we still would have been friends?”

Archie’s face splits into a fond grin, “Maybe. I don’t know if you would have liked me very much, I was a pretty rotten kid sometimes.”

“I find that hard to believe… I think we would have been the best of friends, definitely would have given Jughead a run for his money.”   

“You and Betty would have had weekly sleepovers at The Pembrooke, probably ruled the school, too. Who knows, maybe all of that bad shit in high school wouldn’t have happened to us… Ronnie?”

“Yeah, Archie?”

“Do you think we still would have fallen in love even if we had met back then?”

“I hope so,” Veronica says, moving her thumb across his cheek, “Thinking about not having you in my life… that sounds like a pretty shitty way to live.”

Archie smiles down at her, “I love you so much, Veronica.”

“I love you, too. You’re gonna be a great teacher, Archie. You’ve been working at this for years, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m proud of you no matter what.” Veronica says, assuredly.

Archie fiddles anxiously with the handle of his guitar case as he looks back at the school, moving it back and forth in his clammy hands. He sucks his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment before nodding to himself.

“Alright. Alright, yeah. I got this. I can do it,” he turns around to face Veronica and Jughead who’s returned from his phone call. “Thank you, guys, for coming with me today.”

“Always, Archie.”

Archie gives Veronica a peck on the lips before giving Jughead a quick, one-armed hug. Then, he takes a deep breath before walking in the direction of the school, towards the rest of his career.

Veronica moves closer to Jughead, watching as Archie gets stopped by another a teacher to talk.

“Can you believe that it’s been almost a year since we got him back?” She asks Jughead, “Some days I forget that he ever even left. He’s made such strides since coming back, it’s hard to believe that anything bad ever happened to him. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah… yeah.”

Confused by his dull response, Veronica looks over at him, finding a blank but almost perplexed look on Jughead’s face. “What’s going on? Why are you making that face?”

Jughead shifts his weight to face her, “That was a publishing house out in Portland they- _they want my book_.”  

Her eyes go wide as he speaks, hand flying out to grip his arm. “Oh my god, are you serious? Jughead, that’s amazing!”

Jughead’s smile stretches all the way to his eyes as he continues, “They liked my pitch so much that they want to sign me for a book deal; they already want another one.”

“That’s crazy! What are you gonna write about next?”

Jughead shrugs, mouth open and halfway ready to say that he doesn’t have a damn clue what to write about when a flash of red catches his eye. He looks over his shoulder and finds Archie down on one knee, helping a young girl tie her shoes; Archie looks up at him second later, grinning widely at Jughead.

The all too familiar rush of creativity comes over Jughead all at once, excitement building in the bottom of his stomach and tingling through his fingers.

Without looking away from Archie, he says, “I think I’ve got a pretty good idea.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my head this was going to be at most like 8k or 10k words but instead tapped out at 17k... yikes.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks for giving my fic a chance! Comments/Kudos are appreciated and encouraged. You can find me on tumblr as archieandrewsprotectionsquad. Leave a prompt if that's something you're into. Thanks again for reading, have a great day!


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